Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [64]
The Tomb of the Unknown Deportee is flanked by hundreds of thousands of bits of back-lit glass, and the walls are etched with inscriptions from celebrated writers and poets.
MUSÉE DE NOTRE DAME DE PARIS Map
01 43 25 42 92; 10 rue du Cloître Notre Dame, 4e; adult/3-12yr €3/1.50; 2.30-6pm Wed, Sat & Sun; Cité
This small museum traces the cathedral’s history and life on the Île de la Cité from Gallo-Roman times to today, via scale models, contemporary paintings, engravings and lithographs. An interesting document is a petition signed by Victor Hugo, the artist Ingres and others who sparked the campaign to restore the cathedral.
PONT NEUF Click here
Pont Neuf
The sparkling white stone spans of Paris’ oldest bridge, ironically called ‘New Bridge’, have linked the western end of the Île de la Cité with both river banks since 1607 when Henri IV inaugurated it by crossing the bridge on a white stallion. The occasion is commemorated by an equestrian statue of Henri IV, who was known to his subjects as the Vert Galant (‘jolly rogue’ or ‘dirty old man’, depending on your perspective). View the bridge’s seven arches, decorated with humorous and grotesque figures of barbers, dentists, pickpockets, loiterers etc, from the river.
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SEINE-FUL PURSUITS
The Seine is more than just Paris’ dustless highway or the line dividing the Right and Left Banks. The river’s award-winning role comes in July and August, when some 5km of its banks are transformed into Paris Plages, ‘beaches’ with real sand, water fountains and sprays. But the river banks can be just as much fun at the weekend during the rest of the year when the Paris Respire scheme goes into effect. The banks between the Pont Alexandre III (Map) and the Pont d’Austerlitz (Map) have been listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1991, but the choicest spots for sunning, picnicking and maybe even a little romancing are the delightful Square du Vert Gallant, 1er (metro Pont Neuf), the little park at the tip of the Île de la Cité named after that rake Henri IV (see above); and the Quai St-Bernard, 5e, just opposite the Jardin des Plantes. Here you’ll find the Musée de la Sculpture en Plein Air (Open-Air Sculpture Museum; Map; 01 43 26 91 90; square Tino Rossi, 5e; admission free; 24hr; Quai de la Rapée). A salad beneath a César or a baguette beside a Brancusi is a pretty classy way to see the Seine up close, short of actually getting on it by joining a cruise (Click here).
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Pont Neuf and nearby place Dauphine were used for public exhibitions in the 18th century. In the last century the bridge itself became an objet d’art on at least three occasions: in 1963, when School of Paris artist Nonda built, exhibited and lived in a huge Trojan horse of steel and wood on the bridge; in 1984 when the Japanese designer Kenzo covered it with flowers; and in 1985 when the Bulgarian-born ‘environmental sculptor’ Christo famously wrapped the bridge in beige fabric.
STE-CHAPELLE Map
01 53 40 60 97; www.monum.fr; 4 blvd du Palais, 1er; adult/18-25yr/under 18yr €6.50/4.50/free, 1st Sun of the month Oct-Mar free; 9.30am-6pm Mar-Oct, 9am-5pm Nov-Feb; Cité
The place to visit on a sunny day! Security checks make it long and snail-slow to get into this gemlike Holy Chapel, the most exquisite of Paris’ Gothic monuments, tucked away within the walls of the Palais de Justice (Law Courts). But once in, be dazzled by Paris’ oldest and finest stained glass – the light on sunny days is extraordinary.
Built in just under three years (compared with nearly 200 for Notre Dame), Ste-Chapelle was consecrated in 1248. The chapel was conceived by Louis IX to house his personal collection of holy relics (including the Holy Crown now kept in the treasury at Notre Dame). The chapel’s exterior can be viewed from across the street from the law courts’ magnificently gilded 18th-century gate, which faces rue de Lutèce.
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